'Up' leads 3-D renaissance in U.S. theaters -- but will it last this time?

Russell and Carl Fredrickson in Disney-Pixar's 'Up,' the latest 3-D film to capture the imagination of U.S. audiences.

As Hollywood continues its renewed love affair with 3-D -- one that last heated up in earnest in the '50s, followed by a mostly meaningless dalliance in the mid-'80s -- it has become clear there are but two kinds of 3-D movies.

There are those that approach the technology full-bore, stocked chock-a-block with in-your-face images meant to make you press the back of your head into your high-backed theater seat.

And then there are the good ones -- movies such as last February's "Coraline" and, more recently, Pixar's "Up," the 10th feature film from the Disney subsidiary. "Up" hauled in $44.2 million last weekend, following its $68.1 million debut the previous weekend.

Both films made use of 3-D technology, but they did so with restraint, relying more on strong storytelling rather than selling out to gimmickry (see: "Monsters vs. Aliens").

With a litany of other 3-D releases on tap, including tricked-out re-releases of Pixar's "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2," it's clear that there's some life left in the medium after all -- although how much life might depend on how it's approached by filmmakers .

The current 3-D renaissance started in earnest last summer, right around the time Brendan Fraser's "Journey to the Center of the Earth" landed in theaters. Even before that movie caught on with audiences, the medium had been passionately championed by the likes of DreamWorks honcho Jeffrey Katzenberg, and filmmakers James Cameron and Robert Zemeckis. But there have been naysayers, and plenty of them, too.

Director Ed Zwick -- a director of weighty dramas whose movies, like his well-lined face, boast hardly a trace of whimsy -- joined the pooh-poohing chorus while talking with reporters in December ahead of the release of his historical epic "Defiance."

A scene from the stop-motion 3-D movie 'Coraline.'

"It's going to be about stories. It's not going to be about gimmicks," Zwick said when the conversation turned to how 3-D fits with Hollywood's future. "It always has been; it always will be."

He said it with a finality that suggested there was nothing further to be said on the matter.

"Traditionally, directors have been overusing the 3-D element and making a gimmick out of it. They kind of throw things in your face all the time," he said during an on-set interview last May. "That's cool for its moments, but, to me, its more about the depth you're giving a 3-D film ... where you just feel like you're there. It puts the audience in the environment."

Of course, that's coming from a guy who has the luxury of working in a genre -- horror -- that has historically embraced the faddishness of 3-D. But his advocacy of a restrained approach to 3-D is also exactly how Pixar approached "Up," a movie that has proven to be a hit with critics and audiences alike.

Perhaps the biggest measure of the restraint used by Pixar in "Up" is that it probably never will occur to movie-goers who see the 2-D version that they're "missing" something, since never does an object gratuitously poke toward the camera for the benefit of 3-D audiences. (The same is almost true of "Coraline," which indulged itself with such showy flourishes in only a few instances.)

Theater operators, who must invest a pretty penny in digital 3-D equipment if there is to be any future for the medium, still have to be won over. So far that's proven a hard sell, but, slowly, it's happening.

The 88-year-old Rene Brunet, who runs the Prytania Theatre in Uptown New Orleans with son Robert, has been around the movie business all his life, a second-generation New Orleans theater operator. That's plenty long enough to witness the coming -- and going -- of every previous generation of 3-D.

He vividly remembers "Bwana Devil," the 1952 doozy starring Robert Stack that is regarded as the first feature-length 3-D film for American audiences.

Tearing tickets for "Up" on opening weekend, Brunet offered his one-word review of "Bwana Devil," accompanied by a shake of his head: "Hoo-boy!" (In an interview in January, he reviewed "Bwana Devil" this way: "Oh, I remember it -- I'm sorry I remember it.")

Brendan Fraser beats feet in the 3-D adventure 'Journey to the Center of the Earth.'

Even with that history of lamentable 3-D fare, and audiences' quickly waning affection for them -- and even though Brunet admits to a bit of skepticism about the resurgence of 3-D -- the oldest operating moviehouse in town has become the first mainstream theater in New Orleans proper to install equipment compatible with the newest generation of 3-D, and one of only three in the region.

Further compounding that irony: Rene Brunet is blind in one eye, and his son has irregular vision in the opposite eye. So neither can appreciate the 3-D experience as movie-goers. "Between the two of us, you have one good audience member," Robert Brunet joked while surveying his empty theater from the balcony as the daylong 3-D conversion for "Up" was under way.

That the Brunets can be converted is music to the ears of people such as Pete Docter, the director of "Up." His movie is the first 3-D presentation from Pixar Animation Studios. From here on out, all of the studio's releases -- at least for the foreseeable future -- will be in the medium.

As long as the emphasis is on story -- which is the not-so-well-kept secret to Pixar's success -- future releases will have a reasonable shot at repeating the success of "Up." Or so studio suits hope.

"That (gimmicky use of 3-D) is always off-putting," Docter said. "It might be fun, but it sort of reminds you that you've got glasses on and you're sitting in the theater.

"When you find movies that really work, you just connect with them and you sort of lose yourself in there, and it's like a dream or something. That's what we were going for there, is just to allow people to lose themselves in the story."